If your dog scratches frequently, if the skin or coat changes or even if open wounds appear, then you should get to the bottom of the matter.
Itching can be very distressing for dogs. In many cases, the animals injure themselves when scratching, which in turn can become infected and inflamed. Significant itching is therefore a serious problem that you should definitely clarify with a visit to the vet.
It is often useful to draw up a list of possible causes based on the symptoms, skin changes and history. Not all itching is caused by flea infestation , although fleas are very often involved and flea treatment is often part of the therapy.
Other causes can be food allergies, fungi, bacteria, foreign bodies, nerve disorders, hormonal disorders or tumors . Sometimes several causes can be found at the same time, for example when skin damaged by fungal infestation is also colonized by bacteria.
A systematic approach is therefore particularly important in severe or chronic cases. You should not be discouraged too quickly: It can often take some time for treatment to respond. Veterinarians specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases (dermatologists) can be found at the veterinary association in your federal state.
Recognizing a food allergy is very difficult and only possible by feeding an elimination diet. In an elimination diet, proteins are used with which the animal has had little previous exposure. It is therefore important to know as precisely as possible what the dog has previously eaten. As a rule, protein sources from rarely used animal species are used. In the 1980s and 1990s, for example, lamb was used very little in dog food in allergy diets, making it a very suitable animal protein for elimination diets. Nowadays, however, it is being used more and more often, which is why allergy diets contain less and less lamb. Regional differences must also be taken into account. In England, for example, mutton and lamb are often fed, which means that allergies to these meat proteins are also common.
The elimination diet should be fed for at least 10 weeks. However, there is no exact definition. It must always be decided on a case-by-case basis. In addition to home-cooked rations, industrially produced diets with selected protein sources can also be used very well. They are particularly suitable for long-term treatment of dogs, as they contain all essential nutrients in sufficient quantities, such as animonda INTEGRA PROTECT® Sensitive.